True or false:
It is possible for a pastor to oversee the selection of a church's governing leaders according to biblical qualifications and yet experience conflict with those same leaders later on.
It's oh so true.
Why? Because insuring that a church's governing leaders are spiritual is only half the selection battle. A pastor ... and a church ... need to ask themselves one additional question before allowing anyone to join a church board:
How supportive are those prospective leaders of the pastor and his vision for their church?
My first suggestion for selecting governing leaders is to choose people whose lives reflect the biblical qualifications.
My second suggestion is to narrow the focus even more and to choose people who will completely support their pastor and his vision for their church.
This assumes that the church has a direction and that the pastor has communicated it to the congregation consistently. Hopefully, many people were instrumental in contributing to that vision ... but once it's in place, the pastor cannot in good conscience surrender it or negotiate it away. He has to stand by it ... even if others wish to change it.
Here are some lessons I've learned along this line:
First, be willing to ignore the minimum number of governing leaders called for in the church's governing documents. For example, if church bylaws state that the board must have a minimum of four leaders ... but only two individuals are biblically-qualified and fully support the pastor and his vision ... then go with just two board members for a while.
As I can personally attest, putting the wrong people on a board just to hit that minimum number can lead to disaster.
I cannot emphasize this point enough.
Sometimes I hear about churches that have a board of thirty or forty people. In my view, that's a recipe for insanity.
How can all those people meet at the same time? How can everyone have their say in a meeting?
And how can those leaders ever agree on anything?
Remember: Jesus only selected twelve disciples.
It's far better to have an odd number of governing leaders ... like five or seven ... so the board can make decisions without getting stuck with tie votes.
Personally, I prefer having five leaders than seven. The fewer, the better. You can get more done ... and more quickly.
For 21 months, I attended one of America's top megachurches. More than 15,000 people attended that church every weekend.
Do you know how many governing leaders they had?
Nine.
You don't select governing leaders so they can represent all the groups in the church (men, women, youth, singles, children, pioneers, newcomers, and so on).
You select governing leaders to make decisions that advance the pastor's vision for the church.
Nearly all the problems I've had with board members over the years occurred because we clashed on church direction.
Second, secure an agreement from each governing leader that they will share any concerns they have with their pastor directly and swiftly. If necessary, put such an agreement in writing ... and discuss it several times a year.
Many governing leaders lack the courage to speak directly with their pastor when they disagree with him. So they share their concerns with other governing leaders in hopes of gaining allies. This is often the point at which church division begins. The pastor's detractors then go underground ... meeting secretly without him, making decisions behind his back, and then imposing those decisions on him at board meetings ... and this kind of decision-making makes governing leaders feel powerful.
However, unless the pastor is guilty of heresy, immorality, criminal behavior, or some other major offense, the governing leaders have violated the trust that should exist between them and their pastor. When matters get to this point, the leaders feel they have to come up with some charges to justify their clandestine meetings ... and this is when all hell breaks loose in a church.
The leaders eventually accuse the pastor of major offenses ... but the pastor doesn't know anything about them because the governing leaders lacked the courage or confidence to share them with the pastor as the "offenses" arose. The pastor then tries to defend himself, but the leaders have gone too far to back down ... and often demand the pastor's resignation.
And then it's all hush-hushed ... not because the pastor did anything wrong ... but so the congregation doesn't find out how poorly the board handled matters.
1,300 pastors are forcibly terminated from their positions every month in America. If board members would share their personal or policy concerns directly with their pastor, we could probably cut the number of terminations in half.
I once had the privilege of visiting one of America's great churches. While wandering around, I spotted a framed document on the wall. It was signed by the pastor, staff members, and over 100 church leaders ... and it specified the direction the church was going to take in the future.
I was impressed!
And that direction cannot be carried out unless the leaders support their pastor's leadership.
Finally, identify and wait for premium leaders.
I once heard one of America's leading pastors say that he had identified a man in his church to become a governing leader. However, this man's work took him overseas for many months.
But it didn't matter to this pastor. He saved a spot on the board so that when the man returned from the Far East, he immediately became a governing leader.
Rather than put an unqualified rookie on the board and hope that he worked out, this veteran pastor saved a place for a great leader instead.
If you fill up a board with unqualified or non-supportive individuals, there may be no room for qualified, supportive people later on ... and the good leaders won't want to serve with the not-so-good leaders.
I've never forgotten this adage I learned years ago:
It's better to have no one than the wrong person.
Boy, is that ever true!
Marry the wrong person, and it may cost you for the rest of your life.
Ask the wrong person to become a governing leader in a church, and everyone may end up paying for it: the board, the pastor, the staff, lay leaders, and the entire congregation.
The stories I could tell ...
Any stories or feedback you'd like to share?
WordPress.com
